INTERIM STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE NIGERIA CIVIL SOCIETY SITUATION ROOM ON
THE EDO STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION HELD ON WEDNESDAY, 28TH SEPTEMBER
2016
Issued: 2:00pm, Thursday, 29th September 2016
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room (Situation Room) observed the
Edo State Governorship election held Wednesday, 28th September 2016 and
received field reports from its deployed observers and other election
observer networks.
Accordingly, the Situation Room would like to make the following observations:
GENERAL OBSERVATION:
The election was held against the background of a postponement that had
cited security as a concern. The postponement fuelled perception in
the public mind of a likelihood of bias. However, the atmosphere
surrounding the election was largely peaceful and devoid of any major
acts of violence, which was a concern for several citizens of Edo State
and election observers.
While the process and conduct of the elections went smoothly, a major
weak link in the conduct of elections in Nigeria again manifested – the
collation of results – and this raised questions over the transparency
of this particular process in the election.
Turn out at the polls was impressive and voters generally were able to
vote without fear or intimidation, although incidents of vote buying by
both major contending political parties cast a shadow of interference
with the exercise of free will by voters.
INEC:
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) made good effort to
commence accreditation and voting early in most polling units across
the State. Reports indicate early arrival of electoral officials and
materials in most of the polling units in the State (as at 8:30
am officials had taken position in most polling units). However, there
were reports of delay in opening of polls in some units across the State
with several polling units not opening polls even up till about 9am and 10am. Electoral staff was generally professional and exhibited willingness to do their work.
The performance of the smart card readers was restricted to the authentication of the Permanent Voters Card as there were reports of widespread failure of verification of the fingerprints, which seemed to slow down the process in some polling units. However, there were reports of seeming collaboration between INEC personnel, security agents and parties to encourage vote buying by setting polling stations in such a manner as to breach secrecy of the polls and encourage inducement.
The performance of the smart card readers was restricted to the authentication of the Permanent Voters Card as there were reports of widespread failure of verification of the fingerprints, which seemed to slow down the process in some polling units. However, there were reports of seeming collaboration between INEC personnel, security agents and parties to encourage vote buying by setting polling stations in such a manner as to breach secrecy of the polls and encourage inducement.
COLLATION OF VOTES:
Collation of votes was a major weak link in the conduct of the Edo
State Governorship elections and marred the credibility of what was a
well-organised election by INEC. Although voting ended early, the
collation process was very slow and had to be suspended during the late
evening, resuming the next morning. In the interval, there was no way
of confirming or verifying the integrity of election materials, ballots
and results. The gaps and challenges with collation of results
certainly raises issues of transparency and integrity of the ballot and
elections that INEC will need to resolve if elections in Nigeria is to
be accepted as credible.
The delays resulted in reports emanating from some Registration Area
Centres and local governments of tampering with the votes. In Esan
Central LGA, the Situation Room received reports of attempts to fiddle
with the collation process by the inflation of voting figures in favour
of a particular political party, after the process was concluded. In
Oredo LGA – a largely urban area, the collation also progressed very
slowly.
In addition to slow collation and the attendant challenges, there were
reports from several local governments of security personnel not being
available to protect ballot materials and to accompany electoral
officials from the polling units to the Ward Collation Centres and of
their being absent at the different Collation Centres. This led to
incidents of political party thugs attacking electoral officials and
destroying materials as was reported in Ikpoba-Oka LGA, which has about
340 polling units.
SECURITY:
Security agencies were present and commendably deployed personnel
during accreditation and voting. Up to the point of arrival of
materials, security personnel were very professional and courteous.
However, there was lack of coordination among the different arms of
security agencies and inability to caution vote buying at the polling
units.
There seemed to have been a failure in the synergy between the security
personnel and INEC and among security personnel on the field. This
lack of synergy led to conflicting activities and as well, the absence
of security at critical times of the election especially during the
collation of results. Before the election, there were reports of
materials that were unescorted in a few local governments areas
particularly in Ward 6 in Orhionwon L.G.A.
Welfare of security agencies was also a huge concern for the Situation
Room, as most security personnel who interacted with our observers
mentioned that they had not be provided with payment of allowances or
given logistics support to enable them effectively carry out their
roles.
POLITICAL PARTIES:
There were concerns of widespread inducement and vote buying in which
two of the major contending parties were cited. The vote buying also
led to the monitoring of the votes that were cast by officials of the
said parties, apparently in a bid to ensure that voters who were paid
voted as agreed. This monitoring was aided by the placement of the
voting cubicles in a manner that enabled the party agents to monitor the
ballots cast, thus violating the principle of secrecy of vote.
ELECTORATE:
Reports from observers indicate good turn out of voters in most of the polling units visited.
Generally, voters were very patient and queued up to cast their votes.
The atmosphere surrounding the elections was largely peaceful with only
few incidents of skirmishes reported. This was in contrast to fears
created before the election that violence would be more prevalent.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Following from its observation of the Edo Governorship election,
Situation Room will like to make the following preliminary
recommendations:
1. INEC:
a. Situation Room calls on INEC to show a greater determination to improve on the electoral process by better managing the collation of results. A situation where voting concludes at the polling units early during the day and collation begins so much late at night does not allow for transparency and credibility of the electoral process.
a. Situation Room calls on INEC to show a greater determination to improve on the electoral process by better managing the collation of results. A situation where voting concludes at the polling units early during the day and collation begins so much late at night does not allow for transparency and credibility of the electoral process.
b. In addition, INEC will need to take proactive steps to ensure
that the secrecy of voting is protected and that political parties who
buy votes are not placed in a position that they can verify the thumb
printing of ballot papers.
2. SECURITY SERVICES:
There is an important need for revitalization of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security to ensure synergy and delivery on results by the agencies. The deployment of security personnel also needs to be better handled. Most of the security personnel deployed for the elections complained of not being paid their allowances leading to their personally paying their way to attend to the important national duty of elections. Although they report of assurances of their allowances being paid, this situation is not good enough and should be avoided so that security personnel do not become even more prone to inducement by political interests.
The Situation Room is made up of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs)
working in support of credible and transparent elections in Nigeria and
includes such groups as Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), CLEEN
Foundation, Action Aid Nigeria, Centre for Democracy and Development
(CDD), Proactive Gender Initiative (PGI) Enough is Enough Nigeria,
WANGONET, Partners for Electoral Reform, JDPC and Youth Initiative for
Advocacy, Growth & Advancement (YIAGA). Others are Development
Dynamics, Stakeholders Democracy Network, Human Rights Monitor, Election
Monitor, Reclaim Naija, Institute for Human Rights and Humanitarian
Law, CITAD, Alliance for Credible Elections (ACE) CISLAC, Edo CSOs,
CONGOs Edo State and several other CSOs numbering more than seventy.There is an important need for revitalization of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security to ensure synergy and delivery on results by the agencies. The deployment of security personnel also needs to be better handled. Most of the security personnel deployed for the elections complained of not being paid their allowances leading to their personally paying their way to attend to the important national duty of elections. Although they report of assurances of their allowances being paid, this situation is not good enough and should be avoided so that security personnel do not become even more prone to inducement by political interests.
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